Thoughts on politics, law, culture and guns from an eclectic, but mainly center-right point of view

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Take Them To the Bank Oscar Picks

Generally it's a LaLa Land sweep. Because there's nothing the members of the Academy like better than a movie about them. That the movie centers around young people doing well in Hollywood (despite the cost emotionally) is icing on the cake. Here we go.

The big nine:

Best Picture-- LaLa Land
Best Leading Man-- Denzel Washington (but it could just as easily be Casey Affleck)
Best Leading Lady-- Emma Stone (small possibility it's Isabelle Huppert)
Best Supporting Actor-- Mahershala Ali
Best Supporting Actress-- Viola Davis
Best Foreign Film-- The Salesman (stealing the win from early favorite Toni Erdmann)
Best Director-- Damien Chazelle
Best Screenplay, Original-- Manchester by the Sea (could possibly be LaLa Land)
Best Screenplay, Adapted-- Moonlight

Easy calls:

Cinematography-- LaLa Land
Documentary-- OJ
Animated Feature-- Zootopia (tiny outside chance for Kubo and the Two Strings)
Art Direction-- LaLa Land
Original Song-- City of Stars from LaLa Land (despite it being insipid tripe)
Film Editing-- LaLa Land
Sound Mixing-- LaLa Land (because sound editing is completely different from sound mixing)
Visual Effects-- The Jungle Book (aren't all movies merely visual effects?)
Score-- LaLa Land

Animated Short-- Piper (but it could be any of them)
Live Short-- Timecode (but it could be any of them)
Documentary Short-- Joe's Violin (but it could be any of them)

I'll watch the show this time but under social duress. I'm continuing to like TV more than the movies.
I only saw four of the nine up for Best Picture and I liked Hell or High Water the very best of those four.